Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

The sick woman who got up healed

Pellevoisin (France) (1876)

In Pellevoisin, a small town in the Indre department, in the diocese of Bourges, Our Lady of Pellevoisin, also known as the Mother of Mercy, is venerated. The story revolves around a young laywoman from a modest family, Estelle Faguette, around thirty years old, who was gravely ill and considered terminally ill by the doctors of the time. Reports of her illness and recovery are preserved in the diocesan records, allowing us to speak of a cure that was medically inexplicable according to 19th-century standards.

Between February and December 1876, Estelle claimed to have received fifteen apparitions of the Virgin Mary in her bedroom. The messages revolved around mercy, conversion, prayer, humility, and trust in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. According to her testimony, on the verge of death she begged for healing, and after one of the apparitions in February she rose from her bed with renewed strength: her recovery was rapid, complete, and lasting, without relapse. It is important to clarify that the number and detailed content of the apparitions, as well as the exact words attributed to the Virgin Mary, rest on Estelle's testimony and belong to the realm of what faith accepts, not what can be empirically verified.

After studying testimonies and records, the ecclesiastical authority recognized the supernatural nature of the healing and authorized the veneration. The Church has not issued a dogmatic definition of the apparitions, but it did approve the veneration and recognize the graces associated with them. A distinctive feature of Pellevoisin is the Scapular of the Sacred Heart, which the Virgin Mary is said to have presented to Estelle: a small white scapular with the Heart of Jesus. Its description is documented in the interrogations, and it received subsequent ecclesiastical approval, with indulgences and pastoral use authorized by the Holy See and the Archbishop of Bourges.

Today, the room where Estelle received the apparitions is preserved as a small chapel, part of the official pilgrimage route; there, the faithful especially pray the Rosary and prayers to the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Mercy. Estelle, incidentally, did not enter a convent: she remained a laywoman, dedicated to a simple life, a silent witness to the grace she received. The Church does not require private belief in the apparitions, but it recognizes that there were spiritual fruits, healings, and a message in accordance with the faith that sustains the devotion.